THE CLIMB

"Roller Coaster Friendship"

What You Need To Know:

THE CLIMB takes place over many years, telling the story of two men whose friendship can withstand almost anything. Right before Kyle’s mariage, Mike admits he’s been sleeping with Kyle’s fiancée, Ava, for years. This temporarily breaks up their friendship, but much later Kyle shows up at Ava’s funeral, and they are brought back into each other’s lives. They spend some of the holidays together, but Mike again proves himself a disloyal friend when he makes a move on Kyle’s new fiancée. This new test is different than the last, but will it end the same way?

THE CLIMB was written by the two main actors. Sadly, that bleeds through quite a bit, and the movie feels like they wrote it for their own personal growth as actors, instead of trying to engage viewers. Although there are some redeeming elements, the movie’s immoral content is constantly high. There’s an unnecessary amount of foul language and lewd content. Despite some Christian references, the characters don’t seem to follow any biblical standards. THE CLIMB is not a very funny, inspiring comedy about male friendship.

Content:

(PaPaPa, C, FR, LLL, VV, SSS, NN, AAA, DD, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Mainly pagan worldview throughout where the characters follow a mixture of beliefs but mostly go by what they are feeling at the moment, although there is a pastor preaching a Biblical sermon at a woman’s funeral, her husband says right after the sermon that she didn’t believe in God and leaned more toward reincarnation, and there is also a religious wedding where Scripture is read, but the people getting married clearly don’t live a godly lifestyle and announce during the wedding that the wife is already pregnant, although there is the hint of a Christian background, none of the characters seem to be guided by any type of morality or Christian, biblical values

Male shown only wearing underwear, woman shown wearing a bra and underwear, full rear male nudity and shown from the side, a blurry flash of a man’s private parts shown, a woman bends over and her breast slightly comes out

Alcohol Use:

Heavy alcohol use throughout with multiple examples of drunkenness, one of the main characters is an alcoholic and drinks constantly, at one point a man falls over breaking a table because of extreme intoxication

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Characters smoke cigarettes throughout, one comment about a girl’s brother selling drugs, one comment about combining painkillers and alcohol, and one example of cocaine use; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Strong miscellaneous immorality includes family dysfunction, man’s fiancée brings division within his family, one of the main characters exemplifies strong immorality as he continually attempts to break up the happy relationships of his best friend.

More Detail:

THE CLIMB is a comedy told in a series of chapters where two men experience many different parts of life, some together and some separate.

The movie begins with Kyle preparing for his upcoming wedding where Mike will be his best man. They are in France, cycling down an enormous hill, talking and reminiscing about many things. Suddenly, Mike works into the conversation he’s slept with Ava, Kyle’s fiancée. Shocked by this, and also having a difficult time keeping up with Mike on his bicycle, Kyle tries to get more information between breaths. Mike says the affair began before Kyle and Ava even met, but then also while they were together as well. He claims that the affair is over. However, before they can have a proper discussion about it, Mike gets into a fight with a Frenchmen that he was arguing with on the road. They soon find themselves at the hospital getting Mike an examination, although they can hardly understand the doctor because of their lack of understanding French. Ava soon shows up. Also, although she and Mike both claim the affair is over, Kyle catches them kissing as soon as his back is turned.

In the next chapter, Mike is at the funeral of his beloved wife, Ava. Kyle has shown up for support and is the only person who can break Mike away from fighting with a man who works at the graveyard when he tries to illegally shovel dirt into the grave. He hadn’t expected Kyle to show up, but they are able to have a short and heartfelt conversation.

Next, Kyle is at his parent’s house for Thanksgiving with his girlfriend from high school, Marissa, as she encourages him to tell his family that they are now engaged. There is clearly tension between Marissa and the rest of Kyle’s family. Also, Kyle’s sisters make comments amongst themselves about how much they don’t like her.

So, when Kyle begins to spread the news of the engagement to everyone, there’s plenty of false happiness and silent judgment coming from the whole family. This is also the time when Kyle’s mother tells him she’s invited Mike to spend Christmas with their family. Although it’s upsetting to him, he knows that Mike doesn’t have any family and really sees what a hard time Mike is having when Mike passes out drunk at Christmas, falling through a coffee table.

Suddenly, Mike and Lyle are back in each other’s lives, going skiing together, drinking and ringing in the new year. However, old habits die hard for Mike. One night, while Kyle is asleep, he drunkenly attempts to make a move on Marissa. These men have already been through so much, and they now have another tough test of friendship before them.

THE CLIMB begins very slowly, with long strings of dialogue that don’t necessarily pull the viewer into the story immediately. With the main two actors also being the writers, the movie almost feels like something they wrote to explore emotional vulnerability for themselves, except they never fully get to that place. The endless exchanges of uninteresting dialogue can get old very fast and can feel like watching an acting scene study class. There are some comedic elements, but not enough to keep viewers involved.

THE CLIMB also contains an extremely high amount of questionable content. Although there are some light Christian elements including a sermon at a funeral and some Scripture, the characters clearly don’t follow any kind of Christina, biblical guidelines. THE CLIMB also contains abundant foul language and other lewd content and promiscuity. One of the main characters is known to be an alcoholic, but instead of trying to help him, the others offer him wine and play drinking games together. THE CLIMB is certainly not an inspiring, very funny comedy about male friendship.